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Goodness, I can hardly remember when I last wrote a post for this blog. However, the cobwebs have well and truly been dusted off and I’m excited to share lots of new makes with you.

First, is a cushion I’d promised Little Miss Bossy-Boots ages ago. She’s gone off the pink and wanted more purple in her room so I bought some lovely Kaffe Fassett’s and made her a Dresden plate cushion. Everything was going really well until I decided to hand quilt it. Hand quilting is hard on your hands so I put it away for a while before finally finishing it yesterday.

I added some free motion quilted pebbles to the centre and some leaf shapes to the background. The cushion was pieced and quilted with Aurifil 50wt (2024); for the hand quilting I used some Perle cotton but the very fine one. Could it be a 12? I’m not sure.

Next is a quilt to go with the cushion. I’ve already started cutting the fabrics and I’m adding lots of other colours to the mix. This is going to be a big quilt that will, hopefully, last the Little Miss a long time so I don’t want it to be too restricted colour wise.

After finding the time and gumption to enter Jewel into the Blogger’s Quilt Festival I’ve decided to go for it and enter another quilt: The Heron Log Cabin.

This quilt was made to showcase the Heron print from Across the Pond by Cloud 9. I fell in love with this print but only bought a fat quarter. I have no idea what I was thinking but hey ho it’s nice to surprise yourself sometimes. Anyway, I decided to make a quilt that would be all about this print. Around about the same time I bought a Kona brights jelly roll and when I opened it to take all the purples out to use as binding I realised that the blues and oranges went really well with the Heron print. The idea to make a large log cabin quilt was born.

I cut a centre panel from the fat quarter and then cut 2 1/2″ strips from the Heron print making sure the Herons were going up and down and across. Then I started sewing the jelly roll strips on. From time to time I would insert a Heron to break up the solids and use more of the fabric.

In the end I only used the oranges, pinks, reds, blues and greens from the jelly roll. I wasn’t sure how to quilt it so I asked for advice on Instagram and Krista from Poppyprint sent me a picture of how she would quilt it. It’s basically like chevrons going towards the centre. I think it gives the quilt a wonderful modern look.

The quilt was pieced with Aurifil 50wt in 2600 and quilted in the fabulous variegated Aurifil 40wt that I seem to use on all my quilts lately, number 4654. It finishes at 46″ x 57″ and is perfect for snuggling on the sofa. It’s backed in the Ikea Britten Numbers and bound with Windmarks Mirage from Tule by Leah Duncan for Art Gallery Fabrics.

Please take the time to go and browse all the other fantastic entries to the Blogger’s Quilt Festival. I’m sure you will find lots of great inspiration. All you have to do is click on the link below.

By the way, this quilt was on my FAL and I’m happy to say that it means I have finished two of eleven WIPs. I’d better get a move on!

I’m not sure why but on Wednesday last week I suddenly decided to make my mother a quilt for her birthday. It had to be a quick finish as her birthday is today. Layer cake to the rescue!

I bought a layer cake of ‘Honey, Honey’ by Kate Spain quite a while ago. The prints are so cheerful and gorgeous, I absolutely love them. In fact, I decided while making this quilt that I have to try and find some yardage of some of the prints as I think they are p.e.r.f.e.c.t. I have yet to see a collection by Kate Spain that I don’t love but this one truly makes my heart sing.

Every now and then I pulled out the layer cake and wondered what pattern I should use to make a quilt. I put it back not being able to decide. Now that I knew I was making a quilt for my mother I had to come up with something. In the end I decided to go for big tumblers to let the fabrics do the talking.

A bit of washi tape on the ruler ensured that the angles were all the same. As some of the prints were directional I had to make sure I cut the tumblers the right way and I’m pleased to report I only made one mistake. As it was fairly early on I could swap that tumbler with one from one of the other rows and sort it like that.

The quilt was pieced with Aurifil 40wt (2021) and free motion quilted with my favourite Aurifil 40wt (4654). I did some big flowers, leaves and insects and added Little Miss Bossy-Boots’ and my name and the year. My fmq may not be perfect but, by Jove, I had a lot of fun doing it.

I love this quilt and I hope my mother does too (I might just steal it back if she doesn’t). The best thing? Kate Spain saw my picture on Instagram and wished my mum a ‘happy birthday’.

I love all of Kate Spain’s fabric lines and would buy every single one of them if I had more money. I did, however, buy a charm pack of ‘Good Fortune’ two years ago. Some of those charms were used in my first ever foundation paper pieced project, the double ring of flying geese, Lynne taught at the first Fat Quarterly Retreat and which ended as a cushion.

Some more charms were used to make this cushion. I do apologise for the quality of the pictures. It’s a grey and miserable day here today.

This time I decided to play around with the quilting as I really want to become more confident at free motion quilting. I decided to quilt a grid in the centre simply following the seams using an Aurifil 50wt (5006), do some pebbling on the orange border with some Aurifil 40wt (2150) and a leaf pattern in the blue border with my favourite variegated Aurifil 40wt (4654).

My pebbles are definitely pebbles and not circles and some of my leaves have been visited by caterpillars but I love the textures and imperfections and can’t wait to do some more free motion quilting on my Heron Log Cabin which is up next.

I have found that for me the ideal speed at which to free motion quilt is a snails pace. That’s alright, though, it becomes quite relaxing when you go that slowly.